A sandwich immunoassay theoretically exhibits higher
sensitivity
and specificity compared to a competitive counterpart; however, it
is extremely difficult to obtain a pair of antibodies that can bind
to a small molecule simultaneously, which is always thought to be
a single epitope. In the present study, abamectin (ABM) was selected
to prove the effect of hapten design and antibody recognition properties
on the development of a sandwich immunoassay for small molecules.
First, the epitopes of ABM were roughly located, and epitope distances
were determined. Then, two haptens were designed by introducing spacer
arms at the C4″–OH and C5–OH of ABM, respectively,
aiming to provide the longest epitope distances. A total of seven
rabbit polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) and 21 mouse monoclonal antibodies
(mAbs) with various recognition properties were obtained. Extensive
combinatorial associations of antibody pairs for simultaneously binding
to ABM were performed, and only two mAb–mAb pairs were observed
to achieve a sandwich immunoassay for ABM with a total success rate
of 0.27%. The best mAb pair for sandwich immunoassay was confirmed
by surface plasmon resonance, used to develop a sandwich immunoassay,
and then evaluated by cross-reactivities and molecular docking with
structurally similar analogues and abamectin. Altogether, the study
provided a theoretical foundation as well as practical experience
and demonstrated the importance of careful hapten design and extensive
antibody screening to successfully establish the sandwich immunoassay
for small molecules.